Page 25 of Ours to Keep

With that comment, Tommy laughs, trying to cover it with a poor excuse of a cough.

“And you can fuck off, kid,” I say to Tommy, but he just flips me the bird in response. “I’ll have a tea, please, El.”

Tommy joins him at the kitchen counter, and they exchange words under their breaths as Elliot makes us all drinks.

“Well?” Avery asks, tapping her foot.

“Avery, why don’t you take a seat.” I nod towards the sofa.

She sighs but does as I suggest.

“Start talking.” She waves her hand out in front of her, motioning me to hurry on with it.

“Lily won’t be coming back here when she’s discharged tomorrow, we’re going to take her to a safe house.”

She sits forward. “What do you mean a ‘safe house’? And where exactly is this safe house?”

I raise my brows. “You really expect me to tell you where?”

Huffing, she throws her hands in the air before they fall into her lap with a soft slapping sound. “Well, yes and no. I’m her best friend. I need to know she’s safe. I’m sorry if my faith in you all dwindled when I found out she was laid up in a hospital bed after her stepfather beat her. Here, I might add, right under your fucking noses.”

I cringe at her venomous words, but she’s not fucking wrong, is she?

“Avery, no one feels worse about that than we do. We had no idea he was a threat.”

I scrub my hand through my hair and let my head hang. “I hate myself more than you could possibly know,” I admit, grabbing the back of my neck.

“Here you go,” Tommy says. I look up, and he hands her a cup of coffee.

“Tea,” Elliot says, joining me on the sofa.

I take my mug from him, and he moves his hand to my thigh, giving it a supportive squeeze.

“Well, I hate myself too,” she replies, her tone less angry than before, more defeated. “I’m meant to be her best friend, but I had no idea. I mean, I always knew he was a wanker... but not that.”

She hugs her mug.

“She never told you?” Tommy asks, sitting in the armchair.

“No, not until today at the hospital. I could have helped—told my parents, they would have done something. I just always thought she was grieving from losing her mum.”

Her teeth dig into her lower lip as she blinks rapidly before sniffling and pulling her shoulders back.

“But this isn’t about me. It’s about her. So, this safe house? How long will she be gone?”

I glance at the guys and then back to Avery. “Until the threat is taken care of.”

“And Mia, what are you doing about getting her back to Lily?”

“Everything we can,” Elliot interjects. “But of course, finding Richard will lead us to her.”

Blowing on her coffee, she takes a tentative sip.

“I just hate the thought of Mia being alone with him if he’s capable of doing something like that.” Avery swallows hard. “Mia literally thinks the sun shines out of the man’s ass.” The way she says arse with an American accent almost has my lips twitching, but the thought of Mia ending up at the receiving end of Richard’s wrath doesn’t bear thinking about.

It’s why we need to find him, to get her away and to somewhere safe. I don’t even realise I’m bouncing my knee until Elliot stills my movements with his palm.

“We all do, but until we have an exact location, we’re plucking at hairs. As soon as Tommy and Lily are somewhere safe, the rest of us can put everything we have into tracking the arsehole down,” Elliot says, his jaw ticking.

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